How much Generation Z do you have in you?

Generation Z consists of digital natives. They are more ‘users’ than ‘owners’. For example, they are more likely to have a subscription to Spotify and Netflix than to actually have the music or movies at home. They have a short attention span (7.5 seconds on average). As an organization, it is therefore better to quickly clarify who you are and what you have to offer. And, last but not least, they find values such as sustainability, inclusiveness and openness more important than economic values. For example, read this quote about Generation Z from a podcast interview by McKinsey: “(…) one of the biggest elements that has come out of the research in the last few years has been the focus on values. They're looking beyond tangible products and actually trying to understand what it is that makes the company tick. What's its mission? What's its purpose? And what is it actually trying to build for us as a society?”

You can argue about whether Generation Z's parents passed on the Z-Gen, or whether Generation Z is behaving the way it does in response to those parents (and those parents then reacting to that). Be it as it may, I think in the last decade the amount of Z-Gen has increased in older generations as well. This is not only due to the rise in smartphone use, but also to the influence of social trends and developments, such as the financial crisis, the climate crisis and the privacy crisis.

Just read the media on this:

• De opmars van duurzaam beleggen (Blackrock, 2018)
• Het aantal huizen met zonnepanelen tikt de 1 miljoen aan (NOS, aug 2020).
• 640.000 mensen gestopt met Facebook (NOS, jan 2019)
• Ondanks de onzekere periode neemt het aantal sociale ondernemingen in Nederland toe (SocialEnterprise.nl, aug 2020)

Has the Z-Gen also affected you? Do you also think that deeper values are important, or becoming more important? To determine your own amount of Z-Gen, I have a test for you consisting of ten questions. Simply answer them with YES or NO.

1. I hardly ever procude hand-written text anymore, which makes my handwriting worse.
2. I spend more than three hours on my phone every day.
3. I use Spotify or Netflix.
4. I like vintage, for example furniture, clothing or LPs, anything as long as it has character.
5. I watch longer movies less often and prefer a series with short episodes.
6. I am a customer of a sustainable bank.
7. I have solar panels on my roof or I have green power.
8. I visit thrift stores or Marktplaats to buy or sell items.
9. I pay more and more attention to reducing my CO2 'footprint' (such as flying less and eating less meat).
10. I don't just hand over my passport.

The more questions you have answered with YES, the more the Z-Gen is active in you.

In a sample set of colleagues, consisting of Millennials (born between 1980 and 1995) and Generation X, an average of 50% of the questions were answered with YES. Given the enthusiastic response and continuing trends, I wonder what this score would be like if we ran the test again in a few years.

If you answered YES a lot, you are probably like Generation Z looking for the deeper meaning of the things you do. You also expect organizations to be aware of the values they stand for. And you choose those organizations that show your values in words and deeds.

Together with colleagues, I help companies and organizations to discover their DNA and that of their customers. We use that DNA in the design for so-called True experiences: experiences that are valuable, authentic and credible.